St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-07-02

make Gne mOSU anu Ille ucot VI eAC IlCaiiS
their husbands put in their hands. Few who
are ignorant of it look upon it in the light OF
pleasure, but it becomes so when one has
learned its methods and discovered in how
many ways it's intelligent performance adds
to the comfort and general welfare of the
family.
The woman who goes to market knows
all the changes and chances that come with
the seasons. She soon becomes a favorite
customer with the butcher, the baker, the
grocer, and the fruit and vegetable man
for she is appreciative, and has her money
in her pocket. They bring out for her their
freshest wares, and save for her the coveted
bargain. Sheis able to avoid that which she
had intended to buy if it happens to be dear
and undesirable, and can make another Sc
lection in her own interest. She gets in
middle ribs for a roast while the outside,
which she will not have is sent to the woman
who is represented in the ''order-book.'
The order-book Is the prolific source of &C
cumulated debt, and of wretched, dissatisfied
lives Orders may, or may not be satlstac-
torily filled-usually they are not; but the
financial responsibility they represent in
creases in value with marvellous rapidty,
but is kept quite out of sight until the day OF
reckoning, when it looms up into twice its
expected proportions, and misery is the con-
sequence The women who delegate su"h
duties as these to others lose all the happi-
ness which comes from the proper fulfill
ment of function-from the effort to crafty
the tastes, and add to the comfort OF the
family. They do not know the detail of their
own lives they miss the past of their expert
ences, and the daily routine is complaint and
apology for shortcomings. l have seen
tired and care-worn men sit down
to a table, no single article upon
which had been properly bought or rightly
cooked. "My dear, this fish ought to have
been broiledr" "Well, Why did you not
tell the boy to tell the cook; you know how
ignorant they are. I'm sure it worries me
to death. never 60 into the kitchen, for
if did I couldn't eat anything the way
they use things!" The ball thus started
rolls up on the shortcomings of cooks until
the strawberries are put on the table. My
dear, where did you get these Strawberries;
they are very bad?' 81 sent Charlie for
them. Charlie, where did you get the straw
berries?' Charlie, who knows that he upset
a part and scrambled for them during a
brief but precious game of marbles, says in
differently, why got them at old Sim
mons of course. Where would get them?'
Simmons gets worse and worse" fretfully
remarks the wife, and the meal closes with
a resume of the sins and shortcomings of
Simmons.
Habits differ in different communities. In
some it is mark of solidity and respecta-
bility for the lady to go to market; in others
she might feel that her dignity was severely
compromised. Common sense, however il
it is persisted in, will generally carry the
day against stupidity, and the lady who
does her own marketing, who makes
business of it, who studies how to do it
well and satisfactorily to herself, and
those about her. will soon feel that
public opinion has nothing to do
with regulating her duties, except to
stimulate her to perform them and that
when it undertakes to suppress her proper
performance of them she is bound to dis
regard it. Preparation for and religious
performance of everyday duty are those
things that are most needed and are most
conducive to the general welfare. Marketing
Is OLlc VI tIeSS uutIcS, dila IL ouSlAe W NC q
part of the regular routine of every married
woman whose income is not princely. Girls
ought to be trained to it; and debt in the
family should be unknown.
This is now usually the case where women
are wholly or in part the bread-winners.
Women are afraid of debt-they are also
afraid of everything with which they are not
acquainted-and when the husband begins
by announcing the requirements of fastid-
ious appetite, and the necessity which he
feels for giving personal supervision to the
question of supplies, the young wife fire.
quently succumbs from timidity This is
all wrong. In whatever it is right for her to
do she should assert herself, not violently,
but decisively. Usually it is not because of
his appetite, but his unwilingness to allow
her to control household funds, which is at
the bottom of his expressed desire to save
her trouble and take it himself. Let her
spirit of sacrifice be equal to his-let her
refuse utterly to shirk responsibility, espe-
cially that Of spending money wisely; for
if she does not learn how to spend it wisely,
it is pretty sure to be spent unwisely, and
the source of supply for daily necessities is
where money can be most wisely spent and
most unwiselY wasted.